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Showing posts with label Hospice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hospice. Show all posts

Thursday, June 24, 2010

"Five Wishes"

If you are not familiar with the "Five Wishes" document, you want to find out about it.  There is an excellent discussion of it in Wikipedia.  Basically, Five Wishes is a living will that allows you to address not just your medical wishes for care if you are seriously ill, but also your emotional and spiritual needs.

The Five Wishes involve:
  • The Person You Want to Make Care Decisions for Me When You Can't
  • The Kind of Medical Treatment You Want or Don't Want
  • How Comfortable You Want to Be
  • How You Want People to Treat Me
  • What You Want Your Loved Ones to Know
Five Wishes is accepted in 42 states, including California, as well as the District of Columbia.  We are starting to see more Five Wishes documents with our home care clients at Support For Home.  Your financial wishes are not covered, of course, so you will probably still want a good trust attorney.

Five Wishes is also not a substitute for a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) order, for those folks who do not wish to received CPR. 

Check it out.  It's simple, clear and can save a lot of anguish later.

Best wishes.  Bert

Saturday, June 12, 2010

We Have Talked About Hospice Before ...

We have talked about Hospice services before.  It is a natural and critically important service associated with what we do, providing home care for the elderly. 

As a senior care, in-home care agency, Support For Home works with many very good Hospice agencies.  Today we saw a Hospice RN that combined the best of professionalism, medical knowledge and true compassion in working with a family.  Absolutely amazing mix of education for the family, honest, straight talk, and help for the family in dealing with the emotional trauma with which they are really only starting to deal.

As stated above, we work with a number of excellent Hospice agencies, but our hats are off, today, to Yolo Hospice and their team of RNs and Social Workers.  They make both life and death easier for our clients, our families and our Home Care Aides.

Thank you for the passion and commitment to the services you provide.

Best wishes, Bert